THE ASS. 405 



and with a moderate supply of hay and very little grain in 

 winter, and no grooming, performed all the drudgery, though 

 he kept his stable full of horses hesides. They outlived 

 several successive generations of horses, and though the lat- 

 ter were often sick and out of condition, the mules never 

 were. One from his stock, 45 years old, was sold for the 

 same price paid for a lot of young mules, he being at that 

 mature age, perfectly able to perform his full share of 

 labor. 



For the caravans that pass over the almost inaccessible 

 ranges which form the continuation of the Rocky Mountains, 

 and the extensive arid plains that lie between and west of 

 them, on the route from Santo Fe to California, mules are 

 the only beasts of burden used in these exhausting and peril- 

 ous adventures. Their value may be estimated from the 

 comparative prices of mules and horses ; for while a good 

 horse may be bought for $10 to $20, a good mule is worth 

 $50 to $75. Dr. Lyman, who recently passed through 

 those regions, informs us that their caravan left Santa Fe 

 with about 150 mules, 15 or 20 horses, all beasts of burden, 

 and two choice blood horses, belonging to an English gentle- 

 man, which were led and treated with peculiar care. On the 

 route, all the working-horses died from exhaustion and suf- 

 fering ; the two bloods that had been so carefully attended, 

 but just survived ; yet of the whole lot of mules, but eight or 

 ten gave out. A mule 36 years of age was as hardy, strong, 

 enduring, and performed as hard Iabor 3 as any one in the 

 caravan. When thirst compelled them to resort for succes- 

 sive days to the saline waters, which are the only ones fur- 

 nished by those dry and sterile plains, the horses were at 

 once severely, and not unfrequently, fatally affected ; while 

 the mules, though sulFering greatly from the change, yet 

 seldom were so much injured as to require any remission of 

 their labor The mules sent to the Mexican possessions 

 from our western states, Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee, and 

 Kentucky, are considered of much more value than such as 

 are bred from the native (usually wild) mares. The differ- 

 ence probably arises, in part, from the Mexicans using Jacks 

 inferior to those so highly improved of late years by our 

 western citizens. Mare mules are estimated in those regions 

 at one-third moro than horse mules. The reason assigned 

 for this is, that after a day's journey of excessive fatigue, 

 there is a larger quantity of blood secreted in the bladder, 

 which the female, owing to her larger passage, voids at once 



